down with these people who were my colleaguesand my friends and say “I didn’t realize what Iwas doing.”I gave them permission to help me improveby letting me know what I need to approach thatkind of microaggression again. That was hard forboth of us. I’m looking at them seeing the painthat I’ve caused them and trying to apologize.Unfortunately, apologies aren’t something thatcome as readily as they used to perhaps in ourworld, whether it’s corporate or education orpolitical. I think that’s where you start.

FORUM: Is it easier for peopleto seek guidance if they feelthey are represented in uppermanagement?

It is easier and there’s a great deal of data to
back that up. If you look like me, whatever that
look may be, in terms of religion or ethnicity
or sexuality, etc., then I’m more likely to feel
connected to you and go to you for assistance.

However, I think that if I circle back to what I
said at the beginning about awareness, be aware
that the help that you need can come from any
vessel. There are all kinds of really good people
out there who don’t look like me, who are not of
the same background as me, but who are passionately intent on helping people. That’s what
I would say first, just in terms of getting help
or getting assistance or getting mentorship. The
person would not have to have my background.

FORUM: Diversity has
improved overall in associations, but that improvement
has happened mostly at lower
levels. How can organizations
improve diversity all the way up
the to the C-Suite?

In terms of diversity going up the food chain,there’s an old saying, “Power doesn’t give upanything without a struggle.” Whenever thereis a significant cultural change in an organi-zation—bringing in a woman, bringing in aminority, any group—there can be a productivitydip while the organization is resettling. It maylast two months or two years, but it’s duringthose times that the leadership of an organiza-tion can be replaced for a lack of productivity.CEOs and presidents know this. They know thatif they raise the alarm about diversity, that’sfine. It’s one thing to do it, it’s another thingfor an organization to be culturally prepared forthat. If they are not and they have to go throughthis productivity dip, that could lead the CEOto lose his or her job. When a president or CEOor the board of an organization decides thatdiversity is important, they will demand that ithappens. When they know that it is so import-ant that they are willing to navigate through theproductivity dip, then we will be able to makesignificant cultural change.On the bright side, I believe that there areorganizations that see this happening and, eitherfor economic reasons or because it’s the rightthing to do, they make significant adjustments.You’re going to see it from the top down. Theyare going to be willing to navigate the produc-tivity dip on the front end, because they haveplanned for it. They don’t want to lose money ormarket share and they don’t want to disappointtheir shareholders, so they will plan for it signifi-cantly. They will make the announcement, theywill push forward and they will lead industriesin reorganizing diversity and inclusion and gen-erational balance and equity. They are going todo that. I firmly believe that is going to happen.There are a lot of really good people out therewho weren’t trained for generational politics anddiversity and inclusion, but are figuring it out.They were finance people or they were lawyers orthey were something else, but now they have torealize how critical or how important this is.

Conversely, I think there are organizations
that aren’t that way. I think there are a minority
of organizations that believe “they” need to be
more like “us.” As soon as they can figure out
how to be like us, then we can get along. If they,
whoever they are, can never truly be like us,
then they need to recognize that they are less
than. That is where there are maximum amounts
of conflict. That’s where the lack of understand-